Catch up on the week in HR with our at-a-glance news round up including the HR interim market that is thriving, the skills crisis that is sparking recruitment fears and why bogus sickies are causing havoc.

W/C 12/09/05
Interim HR market thrives
Seventy-three respondents in a recent survey say that interim HR roles are now more attractive than they were two years ago.

And according to the findings by Digby Morgan, an HR search and selection consultancy, 66% would consider interim work as a positive addition to their CV while 64% would consider an interim assignment now.

The recruitment outfit report that in companies running an HR department larger than six, 81% have made an interim appointment within the last three months and, where the client is running a department that is larger than twenty, this figure rises to 89%. And overall, regardless of the size of department, 64% of clients have made an interim appointment in the last three months.

Seventy-five per cent of those currently working on an interim basis do it for the work/life balance and the opportunity to be in charge of their own destiny though 25% simply perceive themselves to be between jobs. Of those not currently working on an interim assignment 60% would be attracted to it for that elusive work/life balance and 40% would view it simply as a fill in.

Looking at outsourcing, Digby Morgan report that 35% of their respondents have had one or more of their HR functions outsourced but despite the high figure, only 44% believe that it has resulted in an increase in the overall influence or status of the HR function.

Skills crisis sparks recruitment fears
Over 70% of respondents surveyed by Deloitte’s Human Capital practice confirmed they were experiencing or expected to experience, a shortage of white-collar workers.

According to Deloitte, impending baby boomer retirements, a widening skills gap and outdated approaches to talent management are combining forces to produce a “perfect storm” which may threaten long-term business performance.

Sixty-nine per cent of the HR respondents quizzed said that attracting new talent poses the greatest threat to competitiveness, followed by the inability to retain key talent (66%) and incoming workers with inadequate skills (34%).

But only 13% identified approaching baby boomer retirement as a concern, despite say Deloitte evidence which suggests this will result in a large exodus of experienced staff from the labour market within the next three to five years.

Ashley Unwin, a partner in consulting at Deloitte said: “Retirement legislation is under review in some countries but the current situation sees skilled workers continuing to leave their profession or trade around late middle age and too few people are joining the workforce to fill their place.

“Governments are able to partially alleviate the depth of talent pools through policies on immigration, taxation and education but their impact is likely to be superficial in the face of global working population forecasts.”

Fifty-four per cent believe talent management issues will impact their overall organisational productivity and 40% say it affects the firm’s ability to innovate. Thirty-three per cent acknowledge it will limit their ability to meet production requirements and fulfil customer demand.

Sick pay fuels absence
Forty per cent of employees would be less likely to take sickness absence if they weren’t paid for the days they were off sick.

These are the findings of a recent study by Watson Wyatt. However, the majority, 56%, say their sickness absence is not affected by pay.

Some 22% of employees who took sick leave in the past year admit that they could have gone into work if they had really wanted or needed to.

David Cross, head of healthcare and risk consulting at Watson Wyatt warns that while schemes that aim to reduce absenteeism rates via remuneration policies may work for some, for the majority pay is not the prime motivator in whether or not an employee attends work on a sick day.

“This clearly implies that employers need to take a more holistic approach to absence. We believe that a balance of financial incentives allied with a focus on the working environment is more likely to pay dividends. The latter should include both the proactive interrogation of absence as well as a focus on the potentially detrimental health consequences of that environment.”

Four out of five employees receive full pay when absent from work on a full time basis. Over a quarter of employees say that stress at work has contributed to at least one of their absences in the past year.

Bogus sickies cause havoc
One in five workers say they have made up an excuse to take a day off work in the past while only 29% of managers always believe that staff who call in sick are genuinely ill.

According to the research by BUPA over half of managers also find it difficult to distinguish between what is a genuine illness and what is not. A third of managers also believe that bosses are too soft when it comes to quizzing staff about the reasons for their absence.

Managers believe that wanting a long weekend and having a hangover are believed to be the main causes of unauthorised absence. Sixty-five per cent even believe that staff that are off work repeatedly should have their pay stopped. Common excuses for illegitimate illness are food poisoning and having a cold/flu.

Despite managers’ perceptions, 37% of employees claim that they actually failed to take time off when they were too ill to work out of a sense of duty.

Ann Greenwood, director of business markets at BUPA commented: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure and companies who don’t properly monitor absence are risking their bottom line. Three quarters of managers think that employers should not get involved unless the employee is not better after several days, but the fact is that if you manage absence from day one you are more likely to get employees back to work quickly. With six per cent of long-term absence making up 40 per cent of the absence costs a quick return to work is vital.”

The CBI has estimated that £1.7 billion was lost last year due to staff ‘throwing a sickie’.

Middle managers four-year promotion timescale
By the fourth year in the middle-management layer, most UK companies have already decided whether a middle manager has senior-level potential or has become a “career” middle manager, according to a new study.

Management Recruiters International, Inc. (MRI) interviewed 200 HR directors or senior executives in the UK and 200 HR directors or senior executives in the US.

It found that, on average, a middle manager remains in his or her current position for 4.7 years before being promoted to senior management in this country. In the US middle managers will spend an average of 6.3 years at that level before being promoted.

In both countries, if these employees do not make the jump to senior management within those timeframes, most surveyed companies said they would be considered “career” middle managers.

However, the poll also showed survey respondents judged career middle managers as critical to the success of the company.

According to MRI, the accelerated timeframe for advancement in the UK is partly due to the fact that middle manager candidates here are more likely to inquire about the potential for career growth during the interview process than their counterparts in the States. On average, 58% of UK candidates will ask about opportunities for advancement, while only 41% of US candidates will do the same.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

Government unveils office for disability issues
The government is setting up a new Office for Disability Issues to tackle discrimination against the disabled.

Announcing details of the new unit, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions David Blunkett said it would drive action and delivery across government, linking with the work of the Disability Rights Commission to ensure equality across society.

Blunkett said: “Every person with a disability should have the power to choose the support and services they need from a wide range of possibilities that exist within a given community… This programme will be co-ordinated by an Office for Disability Issues which will be established later this year.”

The move is part of the government’s 20-year strategy to build on rights for people with disabilities by reforming the way local public services are delivered. The strategy aims to centre on the consumer, individual needs, funded through transparent, individualised budgets.

Supermarket embarks on intensive training programme
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is rolling out an intensive training programme for all its staff as part of a strategic overhaul.

The retailer is launching a £10m marketing campaign called “Try Something New Today,” fronted by Jamie Oliver. It will include all areas of the company’s operation with staff training at its core.

Justin King, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “The announcement marks a change in how we will serve our customers and the start of a company-wide training programme equipping every colleague to improve the customer experience in store.

“As part of this change, more than 1,000 managers from stores and central teams, including the board, are all going through a two-day training course to change the way we lead the business. Every store colleague will also receive customer service training by the end of October.

“We believe this is the biggest commitment a Sainsbury’s board has made to align every colleague behind a single aim – in our case to make Sainsbury’s great again,” he added.

Jobs under threat at LSC
The Learning and Skills Council is expected to shed over 1,000 jobs in a bid to save £40m.

The body, responsible for work-based training, workforce development, adult and community learning and further education colleges in England, said it had to be “less bureaucratic” and provide better value to the taxpayer.

The LSC shed 200 posts in Coventry last year and another 600 at its 47 English regional offshoots.

LSC Chief Executive Mark Haysom said: “Over the coming weeks we will discuss these proposals with the union, other staff representatives, local councils and partner organisations.

“We want to develop new, less bureaucratic and more strategic relationships with partners to ensure better quality and more relevant training for employers and individuals.”

However the Public and Commercial Services union warned that the cuts could impact on the workplace skill.

The union’s General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These cuts will bring devastation to the delivery of vocational courses, apprenticeships and adult learning, seriously undermining the government’s skills agenda.”

Proposed pension rebate too low
Rebates for employees contracted out of the state pension need to rise by up to 30%, says the government’s actuary, Christopher Daykin – but industry experts say even that’s too low.

Launching a consultation paper on the state second pension (S2P), formerly Serps, for the five years from 2007, Daykin said the average rebate would need to rise by 15%. Those nearing retirement age would require 30%.

Only last month, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) published a report into contracting out which said the rebates would need to rise by 40 to 50%.

The FSA’s paper also claimed the Government’s Actuary Department (GAD) was possibly using over-optimistic investment assumptions on which to base its calculations.

But GAD has stuck with its figures of 2% growth above inflation every year, rising to 3.5% a year for younger investors.

With Norwich Union, HSBC and the Co-operative Insurance Society having already contracted their customers back into S2P, the proposed rebate means more companies are likely to follow suit.

Consulting firm Watson Wyatt believes the rebates need to rise by between 25 and 50% to reflect greater longevity, the ageing of the contracted-out population of employees and interest rates.

For more on this story see: AccountingWEB

Women miss out on fat-cat salaries
Women lose out in the salary stakes at the top to men, according to latest figures released by the Chartered Management Institute and Remuneration Economics.

According to the research while women are getting promoted more quickly than men, they are finding marked differentials when it comes to pay. Out of 20,989 individuals employed in over 200 organisations the average female team leader is just 37 years old while for men the average is 41.

At £36,712, these female managers are earning £2,674 less than their male counterparts. At director level, where the average female is 44 years old (47 for men), the pay gap is even more pronounced, at £22,144.

The research shows an average earnings increase of 5.3 per cent for women managers. It means that the average female head of department is earning £76,402 – still a 5% shortfall on the male equivalent of £80,459.

However, with male managers only awarded an average increase of 4.9% these figures represent nine successive years that female earnings growth has outperformed men.

The survey authors suggest that womens’ salaries are increasingly being supplemented by bonuses and while for the first time female managers are receiving larger payouts then men, the bonuses are representing a lower proportion of the overall remuneration package than that of men.

Yet despite the lack of parity in pay, the number of female managers continues to grow. At 33.1% the level of women in management roles has trebled in 10 years. Women also account for 14.4% of directors (a figure that has more than doubled since 1999) and at team leader level, women now represent more than one-third (36.9%).

Skills shortages bite
An Investors in People survey shows that over a third of employers lack the applicants they need to fill their vacancies.

Nearly nine in ten (86%) of employers say that recruitment is a high or very high priority for them over the next 12 months while almost one in five see it as more of a priority than they did a year ago.

But a lack of quality applicants is hampering recruitment efforts, according to Investors in People, the people management standard.

Nearly a quarter of UK bosses (24%) have to wait up to six months on average to fill job vacancies; only 18% say it takes less than a month to find the right person for the job.

Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of Investors in People UK, commented,

“This survey shows that finding the right person for the job is becoming increasingly difficult. Applicants are lacking in both quality and quantity, meaning that ambitious employers are starved of the lifeblood of their business – the people whom they need to progress.

“In these difficult circumstances, employers must do all they can to increase their competitive edge in the recruitment market. This means putting people at the heart of their business, analysing both current and prospective requirements and then tenaciously targeting people to fill these needs – both internal and external candidates. Organisations working with Investors in People are already alert to the issues – and taking steps to tackle them; we believe thousands more could benefit.”